St Laurence receivers get nothing from Podmore bankruptcy

Monday 24th December 2012

The receivership of failed lender St Laurence will probably wrap up with the last repayment to investors in March next year though nothing will have emerged from former boss Kevin Podmore's bankruptcy and his $20 million personal guarantee.

Receivers Barry Jordan and David Vance of Deloitte are working to dispose of the firm's last loan over a recycling operation in New South Wales, though they didn't get anything substantial from the guarantee made by Podmore and backed by three of his companies, according to their latest report.

"Whilst we have made some minor recoveries from one liquidation, we have not factored into our realisation estimate any recovery from Mr Podmore's bankruptcy," the report said.

Jordan and Vance expect to pay 2 cents in the dollar to investors in March next year in a final distribution to some 9,431 debenture holders who put $212 million into the lender.

That distribution will take the total repayments to about 16 cents in the dollar since the receivership in 2008, on top of the 10 cents investors managed to get from St Laurence's abandoned moratorium.

That's the lower end of the 15 cents to 22 cents range they had originally expected, and means there won't be any distribution for some $43 million of accrued interest or any amounts available for unsecured creditors including the capital note holders.

St Laurence was sent to the receivers after Podmore went against the trustee's wishes by making an offer to debenture holders to swap their debt for equity in a new company that would hold the remaining assets.

Investors had previously agreed to a deferred repayment scheme, where 70 percent of the firm's debentures would be repaid by 2013 and the remaining 30 percent by 2021. Under that moratorium arrangement, note holders would have eventually been repaid by 2034.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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